A little note from little Tom

I find myself thinking about my family this Christmas and hope that despite recent news about my Dad's Cancer diagnoses, that my Mom, Dad and Sisters can manage to find Peace, Calm, Humor and Love for each other this Christmas and always...but most especially in the year ahead. I love you and am always thinking of you.....Tommy

Merry Christmas from The Archibalds

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, both near and far. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. We love you all and pray for God's presence with you this Christmas season, and all throughout the year. May you feel His comfort and peace and joy, and know how much He loves you. When we are stumbling through life's daily struggles or coping with immense pain and tragedy, He is there to comfort you and wrap His arms around you ... and when you are enjoying happiness and success, He is celebrating with you!

We were finally able to get our family Christmas portrait done this year. It was a struggle to try to do this using only the timer on the camera - no assistants to get Lily's attention or help take the picture. Thanks to Tom's photography and Photoshop skills, we have a family photo to treasure for generations to come! We will hopefully be getting these out to you in Christmas Cards this week, but they will likely arrive after Christmas. It's an improvement, though - last year we didn't get cards out at all!

I just couldn't resist posting a picture of our little beauty queen in her curlers as we were getting ready to take the picture. She looked so grown up ... time is going by too fast! This is a sign of years to come, I am sure - clothes, makeup, curlers, shoes. She already loves shoes...uh oh!



And the final product ... Christmas 2009 with Tom, Joy and Lillianna Mae...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

And remember, Jesus is the Reason for the Season, but YOU are the reason He came!

Christmas Angel

We took Lily to the studio at Hennepin Tech (Tom's school) for some Christmas picture fun. It was MOSTLY fun ... mixed in with some frustration, tears and tantrums (and that was just Tom - ha,ha!). All in all we had fun and learned even more about the difficult task of taking pictures of 2-year-old. Basically, Mom had to make a complete fool of herself jumping around and making silly noises to get Lily to look at the camera and smile. I'm just glad we had the studio to ourselves so no one witnessed the crazy lady jumping around and screeching.

We still have more Christmas photos to tackle, including the family photo - which we're hoping to take tonight around the Christmas tree. We'll see how THAT goes. It could be interesting considering we have to put the camera on a timer and we don't have a crazy lady to jump around behind the camera this time. I have a feeling we will be taking A LOT of shots before we get a good one (IF we get a good one). It's all fun, though, and creates great memories.

We pray you are all having a wonderful Christmas season. We love you and wish everyone could be together - but we're all together in our hearts. God Bless You!

Here's our little Christmas angel...

And of course, what Lily photo shoot would be complete without the tantrum shot. Poor Lily, we will torture her with her tantrum pictures someday. At this point, we were getting the feeling our photo session was coming to a close...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Busy Bumble Bee

We took Lily to the Mall of America on Halloween. She was a busy little bumble bee running through the Mall and the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park. At first she wasn't too thrilled about her costume, but eventually she got used to it - the merry-go-round always works to put a smile on her face!

Oops, lost a shoe!

Worker Bee

Lily loved the dog statue at Old Navy. She wanted to stay and pet the doggie all day - this doggie wouldn't run away from her! Unfortunately, she also fell in love with a teddy bear in Old Navy and had a little bit of a tantrum when she had to leave it at the store - Mommy and Daddy are so mean and wouldn't buy it for her.

Okay, let's get this ride in motion!

Hooray, the merry-go-round at last!! This is ALWAYS my favorite part of being at the Mall. Even when I'm tired, cranky, wearing a silly costume and didn't get the bear I wanted, I will still smile when I get to ride the horsies.

Happy Birthday Lillianna Mae!

LILY IS TWO!!

Wow, can our little "Lily Bug" really be 2 years old? My how the last two years have flown by - and what happy years they have been. We are so blessed.

To celebrate Lily's birthday (and Tom's and Joy's Mom's), we went to a corn maze and then we had a birthay party for Lily on the 24th of October. (Lily's actual birthday was October 28th) Here are some pictures from the trip to the corn maze and her cowgirl-themed birthday party.

Poolside at the Archibalds'

Summer is here and so is the heat - at least for this weekend. So Lily got a new pool to cool off in. (Happy Father's Day, Dad - you get to put it together!) Lily thought the most exciting part was filling the pool with water.

Lily couldn't wait for Daddy to finish getting the pool set up, so she decided to climb in before Daddy was done. She wanted to play ... NOW!

Okay, the pool is assembled - it's time to fill `er up!

Once the pool was full, Lily was so disappointed that the hose was turned off, she just splashed with the hose in the water for another hour. As it turns out, she never actually got in the pool because the water was just TOO COLD. Maybe Sunday we'll fill it up earlier and let the sun warm the water so she can have some REAL fun.

Lily's First Camping Trip

It's official - Miss Lily is a camper! We took Lily on her first camping trip the weekend of May 29-31 with Grandma and Grandpa Lamolli, Great-Grandma Chapin and Uncle Ryan. We went to a campground just a few miles from our house - Bunker Hills Campground. I know it sounds crazy to go camping so close to home - and in the metro area - but it is actually a very nice campground with private sites, lots of trees and it's in the middle of a large regional park. Once we were there, you wouldn't know we were still in the city and so close to home. Being close to home was actually a nice convenience.

Lily had a great time - I think she enjoyed her first camping trip. The first night was a little rough as she adjusted to sleeping in the bunk in the camper, but she did better the second day. She liked being in the camper and exploring outside. We should have known - as much as she likes to go barefoot, of course she'd love the outdoors! We can't wait to take her camping again. The next adventure this summer will have to be a trip to the lake.

Here are some pictures from our little camping adventure. Why is it that Lily has a dirty face in EVERY picture? I guess that's part of camping!

Uncle Ry sleeping with Lily's teddy bear and blanket. Awwww, so cute! Actually, Ryan fell asleep in the camper and Lily put her teddy bear and blanket up there with him while he was sleeping. She loves her Uncle Ry!

Lily in Pigtails!

Lily's hair is officially long enough for pigtails! It's been growing like crazy lately, so today Mommy decided to try pigtails. They're a little crooked because of course she won't sit still long enough to get them just right, but they're oh so cute!! She's becoming such a little girl ... not a baby anymore.








And of course we had to include a picture of Miss Lily in her Dora chair. She loves to sit in her own little chair.

It's The Lily Shooooow!

Lily has discovered a new game...first she strategically places herself inside of the corner of our kitchen cabinate doors...

then, Daddy plays announcer and declares, "Ladies and Gentlemen, It's Theeee Lily Shoooooow!" at which point Lily bursts open the doors to show herself to the world....

Stay tuned for the next episode of The Lily Show...in the meantime, back in she goes to make yet another appearance. Ellen...watch out!

The Zoo!

On Saturday, April 11th, we took Miss Lily on her very first trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Joy's family went with us. We all had a great time! Lily loved seeing all the animals, but her favorite part was the "Family Farm" at the zoo where she got to feed the goats and see the farm animals and little farm babies up close.

I think we will be making several more trips to the zoo. It's a wonderful place for a fun family day out and Lily loves animals. We didn't even get to see everything so we're excited to go back. The Africa exhibit with giraffes, zebras, gazelles and other animals opens Memorial Weekend, so I'm sure we'll be headed back to see that! Plus the butterfly garden opens in June and I know Lily will love walking through the flowers with all the butterflies. Lots of opportunities for pictures, too! So here are some pictures of Lily's first trip to the zoo...

And Lily's favorite part - feeding the goats at the Family Farm. She liked the chickens and baby chicks, too. She tried to feed the baby chicks her yogurt treats! She just loves the little animals and likes feeding them (she even hand-feeds our dogs at home). Maybe we need to get a goat - ha!!

What a busy day! Lily was exhausted (as were all the adults) and fell asleep as soon as we left the farm, before we even got back to the car.